Thursday, January 8, 2015

NEW! Fujifilm XF 56mm f/1.2R APD

We just got a shipment of the Fujifilm 56mm f/1.2 APD lenses. With an apodization filter, this 56mm promises to have super smooth wide-open bokeh for beautiful portrait shots. In addition, I have one on loan from Fujifilm (the one you see out of the box above) and I will be doing some tests, comparing it to the regular 56mm f/1.2, to see just how different the new lens is, and also if it warrants being $1,599, a substantial $500 price increase over the regular one. My guess is that if you are a portrait shooter that wants the smoothest and creamiest bokeh, and you tend to like shooting wider open than f/2, then the advantages of this APD lens might indeed be worthwhile.

Stay tuned in the next week or two for some tests and an explanation of what the heck an "apodization filter" really is! By the way, the filter you see on the counter is a thread-on Fujifilm ND 8 which is included with the new lens in order to facilitate shooting wide open in bright lighting, allowing for the most dramatic improvement from the APD element. As opposed to the thread-on ND filter, the lens' APD filter is something permanently built in, like a lens element...